Going back to the past, becoming a plagiarist and becoming a celebrity in the entertainment industry (Part 2)…

"Do you feel wronged?"

He was stunned, with a tear hanging on his cheek, refusing to fall.

I said coldly, "That concert was the largest concert in the domestic entertainment industry in the past ten years. One hundred thousand tickets were sold, and the seats were full. There were no less than twenty thousand spectators outside the venue listening."

"They come all the way to your concert not to watch you lip sync."

Yu Ren grabbed his tail in embarrassment, "I just didn't want to disappoint them. I thought I could perform well in all of this... The concert was about to start, and I couldn't imagine how disappointed my fans would be if I told them that my voice was broken and I couldn't sing anymore."

"Just this once, I won't lip-sync again, but, but in the end..."

His tears fell like beads from a broken string, and the corners of his eyes were red.

"You feel that your impromptu statement, saying that your voice was damaged and you couldn't speak at this concert, and offering compensation to your fans, caused them more harm."

"Or would it be more hurtful for all your fans to find out that you were lip-syncing and lying to them the whole time?"

Yu Ren raised his head abruptly and argued, "I haven't been lying to them all along! My voice is mine, my singing voice is mine, and my songs are mine. The only thing I did to let my fans down was lip-syncing at that concert!"

"Is it important?"

"The fact is, your fans were truly disappointed. During that period, whenever your fans showed up on the Internet, they would be ridiculed from all sides."

Yu Ren was driven into a panic by me. He raised his head and yelled at me angrily, "So what?! Is this all my fault? I thought you were different, but the fact is, you've been finding fault with me!"

“You are also a supporter of victim blaming!”

"You are so powerful! You are the CEO, you are the one who controls the lifeline of the global economy, you have countless assets under your name, no one dares to do anything dirty to you, but what about me?!"

"I thought you were a breath of fresh air, but I didn't expect that you are just a coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong!"

He gasped for air and sneered at me, "In your eyes, I'm just a powerless little star, while that bastard company is an entire entertainment company with great influence. Naturally, it's easier for you to find fault with me."

"I took it for granted. You are just a running dog of capital, a shrewd businessman who talks about nothing but profit. How can you understand the pain of vulnerable groups like us?"

"Funny, I thought you were different."

He closed his eyes, completely covering those beautiful blue eyes, and his voice was cold.

"You can kill me or chop me up, it's all up to you."

I glanced at him and said calmly, "Is this your way of counterattacking? Put yourself in a weak position and use your own weakness as a point of attack."

"It's like you broke into my house and used my hot springs for a year without my knowledge."

"You said you had no money and that you really wanted to swim, but what does that have to do with me?"

I looked at his eyes, which were opened in surprise, with a playful look.

"It was the company that put you in jail, it was your agent who ruined your career, and it was Chong Huan who produced false evidence."

"Your predicament was not caused by me, but you used it as a reason for me to forgive you for breaking into someone's house."

"I didn't do anything to offend you, but you really hurt me and asked me to forgive you."

"What's the difference between you like this and the me you describe?"

"In your eyes, am I easier to deal with than your company? That's why you don't dare to extend your claws to the company, but instead turn the knife around and point it at me?"

"It's like, what did your fans do wrong at that time?"

"They came from afar to support you, and because of your cowardice and greed, they were forced to endure the pain inflicted on you by your agent."

"They are completely innocent."

"At that time, your work had been exposed as plagiarized, but these fans still chose to believe in you and like you. In order to cheer you up and let you feel their love, they robbed tickets, cars, and hotels, just to tell you that they liked you, and you - what did you do?"

He bit his lower lip and lowered his voice a lot, "Then what can I do? What can I do?"

He kept asking me this question, his voice becoming hoarseer and hoarser, as if he was about to cry again.

"You know exactly what to do, don't you?" I leaned over. "Go out and tell them that your voice is injured because of your agent and you can't perform. Tell them that you are oppressed and treated unfairly by the company. Break up with your company and accuse them of all their crimes. Let your fans know everything. Then, apologize to your fans and say that you can't perform at this concert and will refund all tickets later."

"If you are worried that your speech will be restricted on the Internet, then the concert is the best platform to express it."

"You are a mermaid, not a human. You don't want money, power, connections or status. You just want the true love of your fans. So you can just tell them everything, fight to the death with them, and expose their crimes to the public."

"You don't have to worry about your life being threatened, because you are a mermaid with magical powers."

"Since the mermaids use human love as the source of their magic power, you should know that love should be exchanged with sincerity."

"Your fans give you the most passionate and enthusiastic love, you should give them a sincere response instead of hiding and deceiving."

Yu Ren shook his head in disbelief. "That's impossible. You're crazy. How could I do that? I would be banned and silenced. No one in the world would know me anymore. I would lose all my magical powers and return to the sea."

"Would you encourage your artists to do the same? That's ridiculous."

"And there are 100,000 audience members. If I disappoint them by lip-syncing, won't they be disappointed if I suddenly tell them that the concert is cancelled when it's about to start?"

"Even if I return the ticket money to them, what does it matter? I can't compensate them for the hotel fees, travel expenses, food expenses, time and energy they spent."

I asked, “Aren’t you banned now?”

Yu Ren opened his mouth and lowered his head dejectedly, but still said unwillingly, "If there hadn't been a power outage..."

I sneered, "You idiot, do you really think that the power outage was just an accident?"

Yu Ren still shook his head, "You mean the company did it? Impossible, I was the company's cash cow at the time, they wouldn't let go of sucking my blood."

I stood up helplessly, "Have you forgotten Chong Huan? They already have a new cash cow that knows what's going on. You, the disobedient old cash cow, must be turned into fertilizer."

"If you were human, I wouldn't recommend you do what I say, but you are a merman."

"This will not only let your fans know the truth, but also make it impossible for Chong Huan to continue to cooperate with your company. From now on, whenever there is cooperation, people will speculate whether your company betrayed you and gave your manuscript to Chong Huan, which is why there is a plagiarism storm."

"You may face the risk of being hidden, facing the company's breach of contract, or even personal threats, but you are a mermaid, you don't want money and you don't worry about personal threats. Those who want to coerce you will be killed by you, so you can use this method-"

"Of course, there are better ways, such as convincing larger forces or companies to offer conditions that are enough to shake them up and make them fight against your company, but obviously, you didn't have that ability at the time."

"So, you either fight to the death or obey the company's arrangements, but you chose neither and chose to transfer the risk to your fans."

I shook my head. "So, in the final analysis, you are reluctant to give up your magic power, right?"

"Even if you tell your fans everything that happened to you, some of them might quit following you. You don't want to risk losing some of your fans, so you choose to fool all of them."

Yu Ren lowered his head in pain, "I just love them too much, I can't bear the pain of losing them..."

Only he himself knows what he was thinking at the time.

Yu Ren seemed to have lost all his life force. He sat there blankly, hugging his fish tail and lowering his head.

"Hello? President, we're here. Where's the mermaid?"

I picked up the phone. "It's next to the hot spring pool. It's the cold fish lying on the ground patting the floor randomly."

The assistant followed me all the way until I reached a place where Yu Ren couldn't see me.

It was a rare occasion that he wasn't wearing a uniform today. Instead, he was wearing a long white windbreaker and a beige scarf.

I apologized, "I'm sorry, I originally wanted to invite you to the hot springs."

The assistant smiled and said, "It's okay, it's nice to have dinner together."

"Don't you think what I just said was a bit too much?"

The assistant said, "You must have your reasons for doing this."

"You trust me so much?"

"Yeah." He put his index and middle fingers together and tapped the right side of the glasses frame. "I believe you, just like I believe my eyes."

His fingers were as slender as jade, without any flaws, which made it easy for people to want to destroy them by leaving a light kiss or a bite mark on them.

…

Before Yu Ren was pulled away, I used the umbrella handle to lift his chin and forced him to look at me.

"Although I don't think I need to explain this to you, I don't want to leave a cold-hearted impression in the eyes of my lover, so I will tell you:"

"There is indeed something wrong with Chong Huan, and your old employer is indeed not clean. I don't like disgusting things to exist within my sight, so within a week, these dirty things will be dealt with."

"Not everyone is like you, only able to wield the knife against the weak."

"After all, in my eyes, there is no difference between your strength and weakness."

"But I won't help you cover up the fact that you lip-synced."

"I won't forgive you for breaking into someone's house, but your fans who love you may love you again."

I lowered my umbrella and the tip tapped lightly on the ground.

"Okay, tell us everything you know. Don't hide anything."

"You just signed a five-year contract with my company. Don't do anything tricky. I don't like restless employees, and I don't do business at a loss."

I waved my hand to indicate that the fish could be taken away.

The clouds in the sky had accumulated into a thick layer at some point, and tiny snowflakes began to fall.

I don’t know what Yu Ren was thinking. He just stared at me blankly with a flushed face.

I glanced at him oddly.

A mermaid’s body shouldn’t be so fragile that she would get a fever just by being blown by cold wind?

If a mermaid is sick, should we give her human medicine or fish medicine?

I looked away and looked at the assistant standing behind me, and said in a slightly slower voice, "Do you want to have dinner together?"

"It's my great pleasure."

A few snowflakes fell on his eyelashes, and as he blinked, they slowly melted into crystal drops of water, making his long eyelashes wet.

The snowflakes are falling and have melted into white mist before falling into the hot spring pool. If we take a hot spring bath together tonight, my assistant will also be with me, immersed in the white mist.

I felt angry when I thought about it.

Damn it!

If I can't make 300% use of the mermaid who destroyed all this, then I am incompetent!

＊＊＊

Known as the "Top of the City", the revolving restaurant is made up of transparent anti-peep floor-to-ceiling windows with a 360-degree view. Looking down from above, you can enjoy the night scenery of the city.

I was chatting with my assistant.

Originally in my plan, this should have been a romantic date, but for some reason, as we chatted, the topic returned to Yu Ren during the day.

"President, do you think the current Yu Ren is still the original Yu Ren?"

“My inclination is that he is the former Yu Ren.”

There is actually an obvious contradiction in Yu Ren’s narration during the day.

He said he was a member of the mermaid tribe, and when mermaids grow up, they will come ashore to look for their human lovers.

He made his first public appearance at the age of eighteen.

Since he is a mermaid, he should have lived in the sea before adulthood. There is no information about such a person in mainland China.

However, the information of Yu Ren from birth to the age of eighteen is clearly recorded in the data.

In today's big data society, there are cameras everywhere, so it is not difficult to find out what a person is doing.

The information about Yu Ren shows that he lives in a family of three, and the information is extremely detailed.

His mother is a teacher and his father is a doctor. His parents are open-minded and they have harmonious relationships with their neighbors.

Yu Yan has been a good student since childhood. In his first year of high school, he won the essay competition with the title "I am a Policeman".

He has clear goals, is in good health, and has excellent grades. At a very young age, he vowed to become a people's policeman.

However, on his eighteenth birthday, the car his family of three was riding in was in an accident and his parents died on the spot.

Yu Ren, who was in a daze, attended his parents' funeral and did not take the college entrance examination. Instead, he made his debut as a singer.

The information about Yu Ren before he was 18 years old was too detailed. It is impossible for fabricated information to have so many details.

In other words, Yu Ren before the age of eighteen really existed.

According to Yu Ren himself, he came to land when he was eighteen years old.

This is the biggest contradiction, and even Yu Ren himself did not realize this problem, because in his memory, before he was eighteen years old, he was in the sea.

After discovering the contradiction, I asked someone to check the blood of Yu Ren's other relatives in the name of free physical examination. The examination proved that they were just ordinary people.

So, could it be that the real Yu Ren unconsciously exchanged identities with the mermaid Yu Ren from another time and space and came to each other's world?

Or did some unknown changes occur in that car accident that transformed Yu Ren's body and part of his memory?

I tend to believe that Yu Ren is the original Yu Ren, but his memory and body have been changed.

Because as a mermaid, his actions were a little too human.

Just like his handling of the concert incident, it was full of the foresight and weighing of pros and cons that are unique to human beings.

After all, mermaids and humans are two different species, and it is impossible for them to be completely identical in cultural life.

However, this point cannot be said to be too absolute, so it only exists as an aid to my judgment.

After skipping the mermaid, I asked my assistant, "What do you think of Chong Huan's song?"

Assistant, "I tend to think that he didn't write these songs himself."

"Um?"

“Because the span is too big.”

The assistant was full and gently put down his chopsticks. The bamboo chopsticks collided with the ceramic chopstick rests, making a slight sound.

"Pop, folk music, rock, rap, and opera."

"Love songs, folk songs, military songs..."

"The types of songs he wrote are so diverse and varied, and every song is a masterpiece."

I became interested and asked, "Maybe he is a natural genius."

Assistant, "Skills can be learned without a teacher, but experience can only be accumulated over time."

“There are many songs that can only be written by people with rich enough experience.”

I agreed, “Yes, that’s what I thought too.”

"He has no system, so my guess is that he was reborn."

Just like a real young master.

“He brought the memories of his past life and released the finished songs ahead of time, making them his own songs.”

The assistant nodded, "Yes."

Thinking back to the unexpected selection criteria when Chonghuan wrote songs for people, and the songs and lyrics that were perfectly matched and tailor-made for the singers themselves, I came up with a guess.

"Perhaps in the previous life, the song that Chong Huan sent out originally belonged to the singer himself."

…

After dinner, I looked out from the floor-to-ceiling window and saw snowflakes falling in the wind under the light.

The snow was not heavy, but it lasted long enough to cover the ground with a light layer of silver.

As I walked out the door, it occurred to me that during dinner, the only things discussed were the mermaid and Chong Huan.

With such beautiful scenery, such a private space, and such a romantic atmosphere, I actually had a business talk with my assistant over a meal.

I couldn't help but hold my forehead with my hand, feeling a little annoyed.

"Boss, are you feeling unwell?"

"……No."

I felt the temperature, looked at the softly falling snow, and asked the assistant, "Are you cold? Do you want to go for a walk together?"

“It’s not cold.”

He took the long-handled black umbrella and held it over my head.

The umbrella is big enough for walking side by side.

This seemed to be the first time the assistant walked side by side with me.

He was very sensible. Even though everyone knew that he was the most capable and closest subordinate to me, he never did anything out of line. He always walked behind me, on my right side, half a step behind me.

Except this time he held an umbrella for me.

As we walked, his hand holding the umbrella would occasionally brush gently against my arm, which was a wonderful feeling.

This feeling reminds me that he is right beside me.

"Are you tired? Let me fight for a while."

Without waiting for his answer, I took the umbrella from his hand and inadvertently rubbed the joint of his index finger with the side of my palm.

His hands were warm and he seemed to take good care of himself.

The assistant obediently handed me the umbrella, but did not move forward. He turned around and looked at me, lowering his eyes to sweep over my light grey scarf, where a few snowflakes that had floated there from an unknown time were seen.

The distance is very close.

You can see his drooping eyelashes and light-colored lips.

He opened and closed his lips and whispered, "Boss, be careful not to catch a cold."

"Just a few little snowflakes."

The corners of his lips curled up helplessly, "Yeah, just a few small snowflakes."

A wind suddenly blew, mixed with snowflakes, bypassing the umbrella's defense and blowing into the barrier.

My scarf, which he had just cleaned, was covered with snowflakes again.

A few of them were playful and fell on his lower lip. They were warmed by his body temperature and quickly turned into a cold spot of water.

I reached out and brushed the snow off his shoulders.

"Boss, are you worried tonight?"

I looked at him.

As he straightened my scarf, he said, "You looked at me so many times today. I guess you might want to say something to me."

I stared at the bright color on his lips and looked up at him again.

"Can we kiss?"

He was stunned.

I stroked his cheek with my empty hand. Actually, I wanted to touch the watery color more, but I was afraid that it would be too reckless.

"May I?"

He came to his senses, held my wrist with his right hand, and tilted his head to touch my palm.

Warm to the touch.

He smiled and leaned over, the snowflakes were kissed between his lips and teeth, and his words were crushed and scattered among the snowflakes.

"sure."

He is a very good teacher and taught me what happiness is.

Until they separated, he stood up with a smile on his face, and his light-colored lips seemed a little brighter than before.

It's not enough.

I leaned over and chased after him, grabbing the back of his neck with one hand and his waist with the other. I used the method he taught me to forcefully pry open his lips and teeth, and attacked him.

I was a very good student, I always knew that.

"umbrella."

"Never mind."

My voice was slightly hoarse, and I let the long-handled black umbrella fall into the snow.